Centuary Mattress Bedtime Counter-Story: Face-off with ‘Sanju’ – Is He a Real-Life Hero?

The movie ‘Sanju’ has made it to 100 crores in just three days of its release and set new records in movie trends that have been last set by Baahubali series in terms of the biggest opening collections in a weekend. However, the record-breaking streak continues as the trend of making moolah with biopics is only becoming a rage more and more by the day. The real-life story of silver screen celebrities with a right twist of tragedy and heroism has become the right novel concept that has been generating enough fervor well among the scriptwriters and the audiences equally.

( Looking at the ‘real’ man through the mirror of a reel hero – Image courtesy: Instagram )

And understandably so, the real-life story of another reel life superstar is now making enough headlines not only for the reason that it is helmed by its brilliant director Rajkumar Hirani who has ever tasted a failure in his splendorous career but also for the reason the movie is made without any fabrication of the actual incidents that happened in Sanjay Dutt’s life which was masterfully portrayed by the lead actor Ranbir Kapoor.

Is the reel life hero an ‘adorable’ anti-hero in real life too?

What is the real deal with the original bad boy of Bollywood who is also fondly called as ‘Sanju’?

Is the deal only about Drugs? Arms? Affairs? Underworld? Or all combined under one label of Bollywood’s action hero turned many times a covert Sanjay Dutt? The paradoxical image of this Bollywood’s blue blood has perplexed many a popular movie-going audience to the extent that while some may worship him like god others may dethrone him at the drop of a hat without any need for a reason.

( Image source: Hindustantimes.com )

Before jumping to conclusions, it is worth taking a look at the dark side of this troubled actor’s life and the many controversies that ensued which made him the man we see in his bio-‘pic’ today!

The man has big ‘arms’– Not only does this macho man has huge arms (read: biceps) but even a fascination for the ‘arms’ and armaments. However, this keenness for guns is not by accident, but it was instilled in his mind, perhaps due to the initial encouragement by his late father, Sunil Dutt. As a teenager, he started courting controversy and got himself arrested on account of firing at a neighbor’s house. He is known to be a drop-out at the high school like any other controversial child for his unbridled enthusiasm for guns and drugs.

No excuse for substance abuse – Sanjay Dutt has done with every drug that one could name so far as a doctor in a USA rehab pointed out. He even exclaimed further what food did the actor eat as he should be dead by then amounting to his endless substance abuse. However, Sanjay Dutt openly quoted in an interview that his mother’s death was not an excuse for his drug addiction, but he did it just for the sake of it and also found it as the worst thing in the world after his journey with it has been for 12 years.

As many affairs as the stars to even remember? – From the early days in his movie career, the Bollywood’s answer to Sylvester Stallone has had multiple affairs which surprised viewers who were watching the trailer when Ranbir as Sanju was seen talking about his 300-odd affairs. Though, only a few names were known to the outside world.

Does his underworld connection ever need a mention? – To cut a long story short, all this has finally landed him in jail in 1993 when he was arrested under the TADA act for his conspiracy in the Bombay serial blasts and receiving armament from Abu Salem to which Sanjay Dutt had later confessed and surrendered some of his weapons. As there are pending cases in the court in 2002, the tapes of Dutt’s alleged conversation with the mafia don Dawood Ibrahim’s close aide Chota Shakeel were released in the media which revealed many shocking ‘underworld’ facts to the outer world about him being one of the partakers in the plotting and serial killing plans of Shakeel.

( During the TADA arrest – source: Indianexpress.com )

The movie ‘Sanju’ will be another revelation of sorts for the tumultuous past life of Sanjay Dutt – a biopic that will explore and reveal to the audience both the troughs as well as the peaks in his life as the guy who adhered to the bad company but still had a heart of gold.